Christianity
Christianity is the system of beliefs and practices based on the Old and New Testament of the focusing upon the person and work of , the Son of the one true God, , and recognized as God-incarnate Matt. 1:20-21; Luke 1:30-32; John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16. According to the Bible, Christ came to Earth to establish the New Covenant, an agreement to die as the ultimate sacrifice for sin Matt. 1:21; Luke 9:10; John 3:16; Acts 5:31; Rom. 5:8-11 in the place of those who had no hope apart from that sacrifice. After His ministry, death, resurrection and just before his ascension, Jesus commanded His followers to spread His message of forgiveness and salvation to all the world, and gave them the authority to baptize in His name Matt. 28:18-20. The great spiritual movement that followed this would for a time be called "the Way Acts 9:2." Finally, the followers of Jesus would be called Christians↑ . Christianity teaches that God has saved believers by way of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Though there are differing views of the relationship between faith and works, Christianity is generally perceived as a religion that seeks peace and goodwill in the world. History Christianity has its roots deep in the history of the world. Taking its name from the Greek word "Christos," which means "the Anointed One," the religion began in a embryonic form upon the mention of the "seed of the woman" which would crush the Adversary (Heb: ) Gen. 3:15. This would be one chosen by to bring a reconciliation between mankind and God. In the process of time, God chose first Noah Gen. 6:13, then Abraham Gen. 12:1-3, to raise up a people from whom that Messiah (Hebrew for "Anointed One") would come. That people would be organized together under and the in a system of practices and ceremony involving daily, periodic and annual sacrifices of animals and produce. To administer this system, men were anointed as priests. As the Israelite tribes grew, the priesthood proved inadequate, making the anointing of necessary. Finally, a king was anointed to rule the united tribes. Each of these anointed classes facilitated the worship and following of the one true and the practice of . After the tribes split in the days of , the northern tribes strayed from worshipping God correctly, leaving true Yahwism in the southern kingdom of . Under the dynasty the religion of arose. It was out of this dynasty that the Messiah would come 2 Samuel 7:12-13. This system survived being taken into Babylonian captivity, from which it returned some seventy years later. Some 500 years later, there arose in occupied Judea the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. His cousin, a prophet named John, had anointed Him with water, in a ritual known a baptism, near where the emptied into the John 1:28. Through miracles and teaching, this Rabbi showed himself to have a special anointing by God. Many times he proved that he was the Messiah. Though slow to catch on, his began to accept him as the long-expected Messiah Matt. 13:16. In one dramatic week in AD 33, Jesus fulfilled the whole system of Judaism just as the prophets had written. In his death, resurrection and ascension to , most if not all of the sacrifices and festivals were fulfilled. His followers, starting with ten days after Jesus's return to Heaven, preaching the -- the message of Redemption from sin and hope of reconciliation with God Acts 2:14-36. As more and more believers gathered to worship Jesus, the assemblies spread to other provinces throughout the , with a large gathering in the Syrian city of Antioch, where they were first called Christians ("Christ followers")Acts 11:26. It was that assembly that appointed the Apostle to be a missionary Acts 14:26. Formerly a Pharisee and persecutor of believers, Paul had been especially called by Jesus to spread the Gospel. Over the course of 25 years or so, Paul's teachings, based on the Old Testament and established Judaism, formed the basis of what came to be known as Christianity. For a long time considered a sect of Judaism by the Roman authorities, Christians distinguished themselves as different in many ways in the wake of the destruction of and the in AD 70. Verses